Nelson McCausland

Nelson McCausland
Minister for Social Development
In office 16 May 2011 – 23 September 2014
Preceded by	Alex Attwood
Succeeded by	Mervyn Storey
Member of the Legislative Assembly for Northern Ireland
Incumbent
Assumed office 2003
Preceded by	Fraser Agnew
Personal details
Born	(1951-08-15) 15 August 1951 Belfast, Northern Ireland
Nationality	British
Political party	Democratic Unionist Party
Alma mater	Queen's University Belfast Worcester College, Oxford
Profession	Teacher
Religion	Independent Methodist
Website	DUP website

Nelson McCausland (right), Orange Parade, Belfast, 12 July 2011

Nelson McCausland, MLA (born 15 August 1951) is a unionist politician from Northern Ireland. He is a member of the Democratic Unionist Party and served as Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure (2009-2011) and Minister for Social Development (2011-2014) in the Northern Ireland Executive.

Education

He was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and was educated at Carr's Glen Primary School, Belfast Royal Academy, Worcester College, Oxford and Queen's University.

Career

He was a science teacher in Ballygomartin Boys Secondary School (later Cairnmartin Secondary School) from 1973 to 1981 and then became the Northern Ireland Secretary of the Lord's Day Observance Society, an evangelical Christian organisation.

McCausland made his political debut in the 1982 Assembly elections, standing in North Belfast for the United Ulster Unionist Party (UUUP), when he was eliminated early on in the count. The UUUP fared badly in that election and afterwards it disbanded.

He ran as an Independent Unionist in a Belfast City Council by-election for Belfast Area H in February 1984,^[1] but polled only 9% of the vote. He stood again the following year for the Oldpark area in the local government elections,^[2] but managed only 5% of the vote. He finally succeeded in gaining election for the Castle area in 1989, taking the seat of Alfie Redpath, the by-election victor of five years before.^[2] Around this time McCausland briefly served as a member of the Ulster Independence Committee.^[3]

He was re-elected in 1993 as an Independent Unionist but announced the week after the election that he would join the Ulster Unionist Party and became the High Sheriff of Belfast in 1997.^[4] He was a candidate for the UUP in the 1996 Northern Ireland Forum elections, but was placed third on the UUP list, effectively giving him no chance of election. He attempted to dislodge Cecil Walker as North Belfast MP during the 1990s.^[5]

Disenchanted with the UUP under David Trimble, whom he had supported for the leadership, he defected to the Democratic Unionist Party in 2001 and was re-elected as a local councillor for the Oldpark area in 2001 and 2005. McCausland represented the Council on the Ulster Museum and the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum and he was for some years a member of the Community Relations Council.^[6] He stepped down as a councillor in November 2010.^[4]

He has been a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly since 2003. He has been suspended twice from the Assembly for unparliamentary language^[7] in respect of allegations of Provisional IRA membership made against the Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams.

He was a member of the Bill of Rights Forum, which was set up by the Northern Ireland Office, after the St Andrews Agreement, to advise on a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland. The membership was drawn from the main political parties and the community and voluntary sector and it reported on 31 March 2008 but it achieved a minimal level of consensus.

In June 2009, he was appointed Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure, and it was in his capacity as Minister that in May 2010, after lobbying by the Caleb Foundation pressure group, he wrote to the Ulster Museum requesting that it display a range of Creationist and other anti-Evolution material, claiming that it was the Museum's job to "reflect the views of all the people in Northern Ireland" rather than to reflect the understanding of modern science. In response to McCausland's letter Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist and noted atheist, said "If the museum was to go down that road then perhaps they should bring in the stork theory of where babies come from. Or perhaps the museum should introduce the flat earth theory".^[8]

On 16 May 2011, after the Assembly election, he was appointed as Minister for Social Development.^[9]

Regarding coverage of a loyalist band filmed playing tunes outside a Catholic church, McCausland said, "If someone was intending to be provocative or inflammatory which is the suggestion that is being made, it wasn't really very provocative...It was just an empty building. There was no-one there to be provoked."^[10]

Nelson McCausland writes a weekly column in the Belfast Telegraph and he also writes a personal blog entitled Nelson's View. http://nelsonmccausland.blogspot.com

Affiliations

He was chairman of The Ulster-Scots Heritage Council (USHC) when it was formed in 1995 and was then the director of the USHC from 1997 until his election to the Assembly in 2003. At that time he was succeeded by his party and Council colleague William Humphrey.

McCausland has served as DUP spokesman and Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure.^[11] He takes a particular interest in culture and arts and is currently chair of the Assembly's Culture, Arts and Leisure Committee.

He is a member of Cross of Saint Patrick LOL 688 and Royal Black Knights of Patrick RBP 146 and was for some years convenor of the Education Committee of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland. McCausland served as the Northern Ireland Secretary of the Lord's Day Observance Society from 1981–92.^[12] He has been described as a "Protestant fundamentalist".^[13] Further, McCausland is of the belief that the people of the British Isles are descended from the lost tribes of Israel,^[14] and has addressed events organised by the British-Israel-World Federation.^[15][16]

Works

• The Sunday Question. Lord's Day Observance Society
• Patrick, Apostle of Ulster: A Protestant View of Patrick. Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland; ISBN 978-0-9501444-5-0
• Scotch Town. Ulster-Scots Agency: 2015

References

External links

• Stratagem profile
• McCausland's blog